


Here When You Wake

by NightSpeaks



Series: Before the Flames [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Original Work
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 20:17:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11089146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightSpeaks/pseuds/NightSpeaks
Summary: Although they've been falling into bed together more often recently, Ash will always be Kharwin's best friend. They aren't kids any longer, but Ash is still there when his friend needs him.





	Here When You Wake

**Author's Note:**

> First time posting anything. This is a short fluffier piece I wrote based on one of my D&D characters, Ash, and his best friend/sometimes lover, Kharwin.
> 
> You can find me over on tumblr at NightSpeaksWrites

Ash rolled over in the narrow bed, nuzzling into the warmth of Kharwin’s pale shoulder. He settled in closer, resting his weight against Kharwin’s back and wrapping a tanned arm around his middle, dragging the other man closer. Ash kept his eyes closed, unready to relinquish the warmth and comfort he found in sleeping with his friend.

“Go back to sleep” Kharwin mumbled, his voice gravelly. He reached down with fumbling fingers and drew the dark green bedcovers back over them both, staving off the chill of the early morning.

Ash placed a kiss on the smooth skin of Kharwin’s shoulder. Ash’s lips quirked in a smile as he twined his fingers together with Kharwin’s, content to doze for another hour or two. Rendak and his pals, two brothers who had been following Rendak since their school days, had spent last night again attempting to stir up trouble and spout human-centric rhetoric in the tavern. After spending so much of the prior night dealing with the troublemakers, Ash wasn’t ready to let the world back in yet. Here, in his comfortable childhood bed, with his best friend in his arms, the world was a kinder, warmer place.

When Ash woke again, sunlight was streaming in through the gap in the curtains, the sun now fully over the horizon. He lifted his head slightly, looking up through chestnut bangs to see that Kharwin was still sound asleep, his face relaxed and his mouth hanging open just the tiniest bit. With a contented sigh Ash nestled back into the warmth of Kharwin’s arms, head resting in the space between Kharwin’s shoulder and chest, his cheek pressed against the right side of his chest. They had shifted sometime during the morning - Kharwin was now on his back, with Ash half atop him, both their legs tangled together amidst the sheets.

They’d both been out of their respective relationships for the better part of the last year. Kharwin got into a spectacular fight with Audreyn, ending his short courtship with the auburn-haired daughter of one of the farmers. Ash had also been unattached. He recently had decided that he was not going to go through the motions of dating women any longer, despite his mother’s attempts at matchmaking. The women she chose, his friend Lieve in particular, were pleasant enough and pretty to be sure. Even still, Ash spent his nights in his loft fooling around with Kharwin, or else alone fantasizing about other men. On some nights Ash had even brought up a companion for a night or two, some traveller he’d met in his mother’s tavern while he helped her tend bar.

After Kharwin’s very public breakup, the two friends had begun sharing a bed again with increasing frequency over the past few months. Some nights, especially when they were in Ash’s loft, were spent wringing pleasure from each other’s bodies, clutching one another in moments of release, tangled beneath the sheets. Other nights, like last night, they simply found comfort in curling up beside one another, sharing warmth and taking solace in the physical reminder that neither of them was alone. If Ash were honest with himself, he’d admit he liked these nights just as much as he enjoyed their more passionate endeavors.

Underneath him, Ash felt Kharwin’s muscles tense. His friend began thrashing fitfully in his sleep, an anguished cry of “mother, no!” falling from his lips. 

Ash pushed himself upright, and sat back against the wall at the head of the bed. He nudged Kharwin’s shoulder gently, and began pulling him up, wrapping him securely in his arms. “Shh..Kharwin. It’s a bad dream,” he began whispering, carding his fingers through the longish strands of soft, coal black hair. “I’m right here, Kharwin. You’re all right.” Ash held him tight as Kharwin still whimpered. “I’m right here,” Ash repeated, resting his cheek atop his friend’s head. “I’m right here.”

After a few more moments of fitful struggling, Kharwin began to wake up. He slowly blinked the sleep from his sapphire eyes as he raised his head to look up at Ash. 

Ash began rubbing slow circles into the tense muscles of Kharwin’s back. “You had a nightmare,” he said simply, responding to the confusion written into the set of Kharwin’s mouth and the way his ebony brows were drawn slightly together. 

Kharwin sighed and was silent for a little while, letting the soothing rubbing of Ash’s palm against his back wash away the dregs of the nightmare. He took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly through his mouth. He kept this repetition for a few more moments feeling the tension leave his back and his racing heart slow to a more normal beat.

“I dreamed of mother again,” he said, shifting in Ash’s arms and looking up to see the hint of concerned wrinkles at the corners of his friend’s hazel eyes and his chestnut brows furrowed. He took another deep breath. “She was walking away from me, toward this blackness that was all around. I kept screaming for her to stop.” He took a gasping breath. “I was yelling for her to not leave me behind,” he said, his voice breaking “but she didn’t turn around. She just kept going toward the darkness.” His shoulders shook as Ash continued rubbing his back. “I kept trying to run after her,” he said, burying his face in Ash’s shoulder, “but I couldn’t catch up to her. I couldn’t stop her.”

Ash continued rubbing Kharwin’s back, dragging calloused fingertips in unhurried circles across pale, damp skin. He knew there was nothing he could say, Kharwin’s had this nightmare often over the years. Ash felt the heat of Kharwin’s tears on his chest. He pulled Kharwin even closer, resting his cheek atop Kharwin’s head. “It’s not your fault,” he whispered into the coal black strands. “It was never your fault.” 

Kharwin sighed, chest heaving against Ash’s, before pushing himself into a sitting position. He leaned back against the headboard, and shifted a bit so that he could lean his head on Ash’s shoulder. “I think I know that,” he started softly, “but I remember running after her that day she left.” Kharwin closed his eyes, dark lashes lightly touching the tops of his cheekbones. “I wanted so badly to go with her on that trip, but she and father insisted I stay and not miss school.” He sunk lower on the bed, resting his weight into Ash’s side, and felt Ash’s arm snake around his back. “If I had gone with her,” Kharwin whispered, as his voice broke “she wouldn’t have died alone.”

Ash drew his friend’s face up to meet his. “If you had gone, you might have died with her. She would have wanted you to live and to be happy, Khar.” Ash hoped Kharwin might believe the sincerity in his eyes, even if he usually didn’t give much weight to his words on the few occasions they had discussed Tanwyn’s death.

Kharwin met Ash’s gaze, but the sincerity in his hazel eyes was too much, and he looked down again, seemingly fascinated by the contrast of his pale fingers entwined with his friend’s coppery brown ones. Kharwin focused on the roughness of Ash’s fingers, the callouses he’d developed from all his years of carving and woodworking. They were different from his own smooth fingertips, but something about those callouses was comforting, it seemed to be a feature shared by people who loved him. His father’s hands were roughened too from barrel making. Even Holly, Ash’s mother, had some wear to her hands from years of scrubbing tables and floors, making sure the tavern below them, her tavern, was always clean and welcoming.

As he sat there staring at their entwined fingers, Kharwin felt the last dregs of the nightmare leave him, his usual grief over his mother’s death left in its wake. After more than twenty years, he still missed her desperately. Deciding it was best to combat the residual sadness with distraction, Kharwin raised Ash’s hand to his full lips, pressing a kiss to his tanned knuckles. He looked up at Ash, sapphire eyes soft, with only a slight trace of redness to them now. “Thank you,” he said softly. “Waking up from a dream about her is much easier with you holding me,” he added, smiling at his friend.

Ash brought a hand up to brush the black strands of Kharwin’s hair back from his face, allowing his palm to rest against the side of his head. “Of course,” Ash murmured. He pressed a quick kiss to Kharwin’s forehead. He pulled back and offered his friend a bright smile. “Shall we see if mother will take pity on us and make us breakfast?”

“Breakfast sounds like a great idea.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are awesome!


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